


Branch of the Poisoned Tree

by Dunuelos



Category: NYPD Blue
Genre: Episode: S09E07, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2020-09-07 03:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20302900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dunuelos/pseuds/Dunuelos
Summary: Situation from show: Connie McDowell is spending her off time clandestinely watching the girl she gave up for adoption when she was fifteen. Although she had been warned against it by Andy Sipowitz, she can't seem to restrain herself. Unfortunately, she sees something which indicates the girl with marijuana and she is terrified that her daughter will go down the same bad road that she did until she got her life straightened out. In the show, she arrests her daughter and her friend … this whole thing eventually goes badly. In this case, as she's madly trying to figure out what to do … she makes a different decision …





	Branch of the Poisoned Tree

Connie McDowell pulled away from the school and got to the intersection. She was about to turn left, to make her way back to the precinct but she paused. She waited perhaps a bit too long and the car behind her honked its horn. Pulling herself together, she turned right to get out of the intersection. She then stops the car.

She turned to the two girls and asked her (unknown) daughter, "Where do you live?" The girl, terrified, answers her. "Is your mother home?" The girl nods.

Connie decided that she would go to the girl's house.

When they pulled up, Connie retrieved a few documents from her glove compartment and looked at the girls. "Wait here." The girls look incapable of doing anything else.

Connie walks up to the door and takes a deep breath. She then knocks.

An attractive woman, older than Connie, answers the door. "Mrs. Beck?"

"Yes? Can I help you?"

Connie pulls out her badge and says, "NYPD. Can I speak to you inside? I have your daughter in the back of my car, with a friend, as I observed them with a joint. I was about to take her to the station when I realized that this is likely a better solution."

Mrs. Beck looked at the car and said, "What do you mean?"

"Can we speak inside?"

She nods and allows the detective in. She looks out and sees her terrified daughter. She turns and the woman is looking at her.

"Look. Here's the truth. My name is Connie McDowell and I am a detective for the New York Police Department. When I was 15, I got pregnant and was forced to give my daughter up for adoption. When I became a detective, I used my new resources to find out who she was. Yes, your daughter is the girl I gave up.

"Unable to help myself, I've looked in on her. From everything I've seen, she's a healthy and happy girl. Unfortunately, seeing her with a joint put me over the edge. I don't want her to do what I did when I was 15. But the truth is … I should have never seen it. I can't honestly arrest her and interrogate her because, legally speaking? It's the branch from the poisoned tree.

"Instead, here's what I am doing." She gave the woman the folder she had brought with her.

"This is my contact information and my family's medical history. I know when your daughter applies to college that a family medical history is needed. And the fact that she is adopted makes that hard to retrieve. So here it is.

"I don't know if she knows if she's adopted or, if she knows, if she has ever wanted to meet me. Unfortunately for me, I know the law – and the law says that it's not for me to decide. It's for you to decide as you are her legal mother. So if she ever asks, I hope that you will allow me to get to know her, but I can't force you to.

"So, I am going to walk out of here with you and I am releasing her and her friend to your custody. Do what you want about the joint – I'll be keeping and destroying it.

"The rest? I leave up to you. I hope, at one point, to meet the girl I gave birth to. I'd like to get to know her. I'd like to get to know you. But as much as I was forced to give her up – I did. She's your daughter.

"Thank you."

Connie walked past the startled woman to her car and opened the door. "Get out."

The two teenage girls quickly left the car. Connie looked at them and at the woman who had followed her. She removed the handcuffs and closed the door. "I am not putting this on anyone's record. I am going to assume that this is a foolish teenage mistake. If I, or another cop, ever catch you again with marijuana, it won't be a drive back to the house for you. It will be an overnight in jail and a hearing in front of a judge. Your record will permanently reflect a drug arrest. Don't make us do that."

She turned to her daughter's mother and said, "Have a good day, ma'am."

She then got in her car and drove away, fighting the tears that were coming out of her eyes.

The three women, one older and two teenagers, watched as the car drove away. Finally the woman looked at the girls and said, "I think we need to talk."


End file.
